Maggie Dutton writes about the absolute filth and bacteria containing containers she encounters in restaurants. And the woman says she's not a cleanliness freak. Lord, lord, and I thought I was a curmudgeon. See the article at http://tablematters.com/index.php/plate/mu/musanitary

Very entertaining blog! I mostly agree with her, but I suppose she'd turn fifteen shades of green if she had ever had a supper at our Deer Camp years ago, but then, that could be why we generally ate in the very poor light around the campfire - what you can't see, can't bother you!

There is a restaurant in Haifa, Ma'ayan HaBiera ("The Spring of Beer"). Established for well over 60 years the place has become as much an institution as a mere restaurant. Specializing in meat dishes, those including Romanian delicacies, rabbit, sucking pig and the such, this is as informal a place as you can find. The modus operandi of the restaurant is to enter, take a place at one of the long tables, sharing with whomever else happens to be there, and then setting in to feast.

Several years ago, while raving about the food, I could not help but note among other things that the owner has been sitting in the same chair near the door for so long and without any sign of movement that not even the waiters are sure whether he was dead or alive. Nor could I help but note that this place was so well worn that it was as far from clean as a restaurant could be without going through spontaneous combustion. Regardless of which, I recommended then as I do now that multiple visits were most assuredly in order.

By coincidence, on the same day as my own review appeared so did that of one of my colleagues - Gil Hovav. Like me, Gil raved about the food. As to the cleanliness, he did report the following: "At one time during my meal I had to use the men's room. As I entered I thought -'My God, I have never seen a mens' room as filthy as this'. And then I realized, I was not in the mens' room. I was in the kitchen". He also recommended the place highly.

+++++++

On another occasion I had travelled with a group of colleagues, mostly travel writers, to Cozumel, Mexico. We were in town for some 40 hours and I split from the group to attend a village feast in the countryside. The next morning I was strolling through the city of Cozumel and stopping here and there to sample from the marvelous fare being sold by older men and women from their pushcarts. My colleagues came along and were aghast. How could I eat that filthy food that came out of such poluted water as was in the carts. I assured them that the foods I was eating had been boiled so thoroughly and so long that any harmful bacteria that might once have been there were long dead. My colleagues laughed aloud at me, saying that surely the next day I would be ill. They then proceded to what they were convinced was a "typical Mexican restaurant" - the kind serving chile con carne, fajitos, hamburgers, hot dogs and the like.

The next day as our ship sailed for Jamaica, I was alive and very well indeed thank you and multiple portions of lobster mayonnaise at an outdoor buffet aboard. They, every one of them, were laid up with Montezuma's revenge. Those lobsters tasted especially good that day. Montezuma or no Montezuma, revenge is sweet.

Maggie Dutton wrote: ...Always excuse a whiff of bleach at the table; it bodes well, not ill...

The only places I have ever dined that had "a whiff of bleach" at the table were army canteens. If the esteemed Ms. Dutton thinks that "bodes well, not ill", why all I can say is that better her than me...

“Of course we must be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.”Richard Dawkins

LOL, if this wasn't written as a joke or to jerk chains, then this woman is way out there at the apex of the obsession chart and would qualify as the "chicken little" of the food writers.I don't think dining with her would rate as one of the great gastronomic experiences.